One of the biggest challenges for developing new and better treatments for cancer is gaining a better understanding of how and why cancer spreads. Recent breakthroughs have uncovered how different cellular proteins are turned ‘on’ or ‘off’ at the molecular level, but much remains to be understood about how protein signaling influences cell behavior.
CCGS member Brian Kuhlman collaborated on a new technique developed by UNC colleague Klaus Hahn that uses light to manipulate the activity of a protein at precise times and places within a living cell, providing a new tool for scientists who study the fundamentals of protein function. “The technology has exciting applications in basic research – in many cases the same protein can be either cancer-producing or beneficial, depending on where in a cell it is activated. Now researchers can control where that happens and study this heretofore inaccessible level of cellular control,” said Hahn. “Because we first tested this new technology on a protein that initiates cell movement, we can now use light to control where and how cells move. This is quite valuable in studies where cell movement is the focus of the research, including embryonic development, nerve regeneration and cancer metastasis,” he added.
The new technology is an advance over previous light-directed methods of cellular control that used toxic wavelengths of light, disrupted the cell membrane or could switch proteins ‘on’ but not ‘off’. The paper was published in the August 19 issue of Nature.